Sanders Cup decision down to the last race

by Antje Muller on 20 Feb 2010 This year the New Plymouth Yacht Club has been hosting the Sanders Cup from 12 to 14 February.

In one of the most hotly contested Sanders Cup events, the top three boats were so close that the outcome was open until the last lap of the very last race.

The line-up for the Sanders Cup consisted of defending Sanders Cup winner Horowhenua with the same skipper but new boat and crew, Ben Bax sailing his new 522 for the Bay of Plenty, 2009 Sanders Cup host Colin Shanks teaming up with Nathan Bax, Craig Gilberd sailing Bungholio for North Harbour, Manawatu sailing the previous winning boat Flying Circus, Northland being represented by Nice One, and Thirty Something showing for Wellington.

The traditional invitation race was sailed in very light winds on Friday morning. After a good start, Bay of Plenty got into a slight lead, only to lose it to East Coast in a tacking duel shortly before the first mark. They continue to lead the race throughout all three laps and carried it to win in front of North Harbour and Bay of Plenty.

The wind picked up a little for the first race of the Sanders Cup. Bay of Plenty sailed a beautiful win from start to finish.

The second race saw a premature start by two boats, and East Coast returned twice to exonerate themselves. Unfortunately that did not count for Bay of Plenty as well, who would have come second if they had not been OCS. They lost their lead when the crew slipped off his trapeze handle and nearly capsized if it had not been for class veteran Ben Bax jumping on the wire to hold the boat upright. This allowed North Habour to sneak through and carry a tight lead to the finish. Despite being very late off the start, East Coast came second ahead of Wellington. Horowhenua had a lucky break when leading around the top mark, losing their rig because of a broken sidestay but fortunately only doing minor damage so repairs could be completed before racing the next day.

The fleet came closer together on the second day. Saturday saw challenging conditions for the Javelins with only 12 to 15 knots of wind but 2m steep swells and a sea running across it.

Race four saw a clean start but then a port-starboard incident between Bungholio and Bay Nissan, which went to arbitration and resulted in a penalty to Bungholio of 4 points in that race. There was very close racing throughout the fleet. Wellington showed that a veteran boat can still go fast when they came fourth in front of Horowhenua in race four and six. Manawatu and Northland battled over sixth place, Nice on scoring race three because Flying Circus retired, and Flying Circus beating them in race four and five, applying their greater crew weight and experience – even though that stems from some 20 years ago!

For sailors and spectators, the downwind ‘rides' were very exciting, with the boats accelerating down the waves and quite a few boats stopping abruptly in the next one. Crews had to hang on to toe straps, sheets and skippers life jackets to stay on the boats.

One of the greatest challenges of the day was to find the windward mark in the jumbled and confused sea, especially after it drifted South during race four.

On the beats to windward, it was hard work to keep the boats moving fast, and all skippers felt their arms at the end of the day. North Harbour showed great speed, but East Coast picked up their pace to win race four and come second in race five. In one of the most tightly contested series the Javelin class has seen in a while, the first three boats were within one point of each other before the last day of racing.

In the evening, most of the sailors got together at the holiday park for some great after-race discussion and planning for the next season. It was a great evening for competitors and shore-crew alike.

The wind was a little less on Sunday, but two swells from the North and the West were still running across the racing track. The skies finally cleared enough to allow a view of Mount Egmont. Bay of Plenty overtook the leading East Coast boat and North Harbour on the first downwind leg, and the top three boats finished in that order. Horowhenua used their superior downwind performance to keep Wellington at bay in both races of the day, but Wellington still came fourth on equal points after countback.

The leading pack were still within a point of each other before the last race, so whoever won that one was going to win the Sanders Cup, except that East Coast had to have two points on Bay of Plenty who would otherwise win on countback. Nevertheless that start was clean, and all three chose the left hand side of the course upwind. East Coast had greater speed, and while North Harbour could hang on during the beat, Bay of Plenty lost a lot of ground at the top mark. They recovered most of that distance on the downwind run, but North Harbour was even luckier and managed to claw a lead out of East Coast.

On the second beat, East Coast chose the right hand side again, and worked the shifts and their boat speed to a very handy lead at the last mark. Wellington and Horowhenua on the right got better wind and Wellington actually overtook Bay of Plenty at the top mark, just to lose third position on the downwind again and finish fifth. North Harbour tried the right hand side of the course downwind to gain back their lead, but all they could do was to reduce East Coast's winning margin.

After an exciting and exhausting last race, East Coast won the Sanders Cup with one point's lead over North Harbour who was tied on points with Bay of Plenty. Nice One was awarded the DFL trophy and decided that now that they achieved to consistently win it, they should improve more to avoid winning it in the future.

Racing was over by lunchtime, so this left plenty of time to sort out all the ‘if's and ‘but's of this tightly contested series.

Congratulations to very deserving winners Nathan Bax and Colin Shanks on Riders of the Storm for East Coast!